The Keith Edwards Show - They tried cancelling me over this

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

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Jasmine Crockett announced her candidacy to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate earlier this week. And I've got some thoughts about it. I think her announcement and subsequent interviews had been worrying because I don't know if you're like me, but I just want to win, baby. I want to win. I want to flip Texas blue. And I just want to present to you some worrying signs that Jasmine Crockett may not be the one to get us there. Now, before we get to all that, I just want to point out that, again, regardless of who wins the primary, I will back them and support them 100%.

I just want us to be super smart and strategic about who we nominate because I do believe Texas is winnable. But after looking at some numbers and seeing some interviews and some past statements, I wonder if it's winnable with Jasmine Crockett. And I just have to say, too, because I posted about the... a couple of days ago on threads, we can be critical of people who are seeking higher office. And if that person doesn't look exactly like me, I'm not being critical because of some demographic makeup of who they are. It is not racist to critique someone who is seeking higher office. Okay. Now, there are racist things that have been said about Jasmine Crockett that are so detestable. But laying out path to victory and previous comments is not racist.

And truly, I believe when you levy accusations like that against someone like me, it actually minimizes real racism that happens all the time. Okay. So we're going to have an adult conversation about this race and we'll go through some stuff. And again, this is all about you just being able to make the right decision, the most strategic decision in the primary. And certainly this won't be the last time we talk about.

it but let's get into it now this is to me the first sign this is jasmine crockett's announcement video this is just a bit of it how about this new one they have their new star crocket how about her she's the new star of the democrat party jasmine carcett they're in big trouble but you have this woman crocket she's a very low IQ person i watched her speak the other day she's definitely a low IQ person. Crocket. Oh man. Oh man.

She's a very low IQ person. It goes on like that. It's Donald Trump critiquing Jasmine Crockett and this, I think, really artfully shot single take of her looking, I guess, to the future, and then looking defiantly to Trump. And then she crosses her arms. And it's like, I'm running for Senate. All right. Now, I have some thoughts about this, but I want to first show this is the other person in

the race, James, Tala Rico. This is how he decided to launch his campaign. The biggest divide in our country is not left versus right. It's top versus bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other so that we're not looking up at them. The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power.

All right. So you get the contrast here. So it's James Talarico talking to a group of people. It starts on him, but then it widens out because I guess the metaphor here is or the idea is that this is about all of us. And he's not focused on the president. He's focused on the voters. I think to me that kind of broadly speaks to the way that these people are going to run their campaigns and how they would serve if they're in office. It seems to me, James Tallerico is focused on affordability. He's focused on voters and Jasmine Crockett in this launch video and also in subsequent interviews kind of focused on herself. Now, that could be the winning formula to win a primary. I'm not sure that's the winning formula being against Trump versus being for voters is the way you win a general election in Texas. And part of, I think, winning a general election in Texas is, is how people feel about you. And unfortunately, or fortunately for Jasmine Crockett,

she's very well-known. She's a celebrity. But the problem with being a well-known celebrity in politics is people basically already have made up their mind about you before they even see one ad. And one poll shows that nearly half of voters in Texas said they would definitely not vote for her. Nearly half.

49%. Now, that is a little bit lower for James Talarico, who at 40% has a much higher ceiling. So 60% of voters could potentially be persuaded to vote for James Tala Rico when it comes to Jasmine Crockett and in general election, 51%. And that number could change and go even higher. So James Telerico has just a higher ceiling of voters who may want to learn more about him and may potentially could be persuaded for him. Again, Jasmine Crockett is an amazing communicator.

She's a lightning rod that's really worked for her. But when it comes to having to persuade a broad population, it could be much harder. Now, Jasmine Crockett would say, I don't need to persuade a broad population to people. All I need to do is bring out the base. And if I bring out the base, I'll win. That's why she's saying in this launch week that she might not even need to win over Republican voters. in Texas. How will you make voters

who previously voted for Trump, particularly given that you have been an outspoken critic, and he has inserted himself, just take your campaign video as is. He has inserted himself at every turn when it comes to your commentary.

How will you convert those who are supportive of him to voters for you? Yeah, I don't know that we'll necessarily convert all of Trump supporters. That's not our goal. Do you need to?

Our goal is to definitely talk to people. no, we don't. We don't need to. Our goal is to make sure that we can engage people that historically have not been talked to because there's so many people that get ignored specifically in the state of Texas. Listen, the state of Texas is 61% people of color. We have a lot of... So she says, no, we don't need to talk to Trump voters. I think that's wrong. Now, if she wins the primary and she goes into the general, she could prove me wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. But I I believe that's wrong. I think in order to win Texas, which is an R plus 14 state, which means that Texas in the last presidential election was won by Republicans by more than 14 points.

It seems to me you kind of need a couple of them in order to win Texas. Now, the second, she's right, it is a 60% person of color voting block in Texas. Now, there's one problem with that. It's that it's not a problem. It's not a problem for Texas. It's a problem for Jasmine Crockett. because the second largest voting block in Texas is Latinos. And Jasmine Crockett has been quoted saying something quite disparaging about Latinos. She said this.

It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about a kind of slave-like mentality and that some slaves would have for themselves. She told the magazine in expressing her belief that Latinos associate illegals with criminals and cartels. she said, quote, and it's almost like a slave mentality that they have. It's wild to me when I hear how anti-immigrant they are, as immigrants, many of them, I'm talking about that literally just got here and can barely vote that are having this kind of attitude. So it's never smart to attack voters. It's never smart to disparage voters. It's certainly never smart to do it to the second largest voting block in Texas. Now, she was asked about this on CNN, and I kind of was not really satisfied

with the way she handled this. And I'm going to show you, James Taylor-Rigo also has some issues, too, but I think the way that he handled it, to me, speaks again to how not only will they govern, but how are they going to keep campaigning? And here's how she responded to that quote. Let me ask you about a quote that you've made that has some Democrats worry about your ability to win statewide. In a December 2024 vanity fair profile, you talked about quotes, and I'm going to read a lot of the quote, just to put it in the context, quote, all the complexities within the Latino community, the immigration thing has always been something that has perplexed me about this community. It's basically like, I fought to get here, but I left y'all where I left y'all, and I want no more

y'all to come here. If I wanted to be with y'all, I would stay with y'all, but I don't want y'all come into my new home. It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about kind of like slave mentality and the hate that some slaves would have for themselves. It's almost like a slave mentality that they have. Now, about the time that that was published last year, around a million Latino voters in Texas were voting for Trump. Do they all have slave mentality? No, and that's not what that said at all, to be clear. It did not say that every Latino has that type of mentality. No, no, but the ones that vote for people who believe in strong or Trump's immigration policies. So I don't believe that the people that voted for Trump believe in what they're

actually getting. So she doesn't really answer the question directly. And in the way that she does answer it, She says, she didn't say what she said. That to me is very Trumpian. When you have a quote that attributed to you and you say, I didn't say that, that to me is not the greatest answer. And certainly isn't, I think for a large voting block, I don't think it's a very satisfying answer. Hopefully that answer can change moving forward. But to me, that was not very satisfying. Now, on the other side, James Delrico has been quoted saying that God is non-binary.

and I think that's probably like I think it's a very like philosophical question but probably true like does God like why would God have a gender if God exists why would God have a gender? I think we say he because he is kind of was the default pronoun back then probably if the Bible were written today

it would say they them okay but he was quoted saying that God is nine binary which is kind of an interesting way of thinking about it But probably doesn't float very well in Texas, and I can hear the ads being written right now. But the difference between these two quotes is the way that they've handled it. And this is James Chalarico saying, I don't think, theoretically speaking, any of my fellow believers would disagree that God is beyond gender. I recognized how I phrased it, probably raised some eyebrows. But the idea that Christ and God, there is neither male nor female, that is not coming for me.

That's coming from Apostle Paul. And so if John Cornyn has an issue with that, he should take it up. Not with me, but the letter to the Galatians. Now again, he's not running away from it. He's kind of running towards it. And he's also putting someone on the defense. So when it comes to the Latina vote, Jansler Crockett has an uphill climb.

She already has 49% of voters, according to one poll, saying they've already made up their mind that no matter what, they're not going to vote for her. And James Tarlerichiro on the opposite end, there's a 60% of voters say that they, they would potentially consider maybe giving him a shot. Okay? Now, when it comes to the fact that her whole strategy is a base strategy, get out the base,

I don't personally believe there's enough Democrats and folks who typically don't vote to overcome the Republican voting bloc. And I'm not really alone in that sentiment. Here's Tim Miller from the bulwark saying just that. So worries me, right? And that CNN interview, she was like, look, Beto only lost by three. and he won 65% of Latino voters and 90% of black voters. And so if we like turn out those voters, we can win.

And I was thinking, well, but he lost. And that's a high number. We're going to get, you're going to get 65% of Hispanic voters. Like that's a lot of work, right? They're not just going to vote for you just because you're Democrat, right? Like since 18, Hispanic voters have moved to the right significantly. Now they can tack back. They can tack back.

Democrats can win them back for sure. that that's not like a turnout game, really. That's a persuasion. Like, you've got to go persuade them and convince them. Sometimes they get a little bit concerned. Yeah, you've got to persuade them and to convince them. But it sounds like to me, that's not something that Crockett is interested in. At least that's what she said in her own interview.

And I've got to add that when Joy Reid asked her this earlier this week, again, her answer just to me wasn't very satisfying. How do you flip Latino voters in a state where, I mean, nationwide, 55% of Latino men voted for Trump. Those numbers have dropped nationwide, but his people are still his people. And pulling out more Latino voters in Texas, getting them to come out, that doesn't necessarily mean they vote for the Democrat. They might vote for the Republican. This is a very good point. So so far in polling that we've seen, when it comes down to Texans and Latinos, we only have about one fifth of them right now that are regretting their vote. But when you start to just talk about

the issues, when you start to talk about the economy, me when you start to talk about the fact that we've not raised the minimum wage. And there are people that still get paid the very minimum in Texas because we've not raised it on a state level or a federal level. When you start to talk about the access to health care, I mean, there's work that I did down in the valley to get resources into one of the hospitals. I mean, you get the idea. There's no direct answer how she plans on persuading Latino Trump voters to vote for

her or Latinos in general to vote for her. And that to me again is just a worrying sign. This is the beginning of the campaign. It could change. Perhaps our answers are to get clearer, conciscer, and more persuasive. My hope, my wish, is that we flip Texas blue. And again, I will be supporting and behind anyone who wins the primary. I just want you to be strategic about who you support, who you send donations to. And if you're in Texas, who you vote for. because it seems like there may be insurmountable math between Jasmine Crockett's candidacy and her ability to actually win Texas. And it seems like James Talleyico's biggest problem is that people just don't know who he is. And that, trust me, is an issue that will go away if he were to win the primary and he would have as much money as he would need to make sure that as many voters.

as possible know who he is. And I think it's at this point maybe better to be undefined and to not have any comments disparaging voters versus being very well known, an outspoken Trump critic in a very, very Trumpy state attacking the very voters you're going to need to win you over. And I'm just going to say again, I've gotten these comments. When I pointed this out, white men will always default to defending racists or like someone else. just attacking, attacking me and calling me a quote, strategist, as if that's not what I've done for a living for a long time. It's just not helpful.

We all just want, we all just want to win. And attacking someone and calling them racist for just pointing out what could be the facts of this race. I'm saying to say other voters see that and it's not helpful. It's not helpful. I can take it. I'm a big boy, but it's just not how we're going to be able to win elections next year or in two years if we're attacking people who have different ideas about who and why they can win, but it's just not helpful. It's not helpful. In fact, it can be hurtful because other people see that and they say, oh, maybe the Democratic Party's not for me because this guy has a heterodox opinion. Instead of just debating him on his ideas, it suddenly becomes a personal attack on either. what he does or is race and gender. I hope we can move past those types of unhelpful,

unhelpful attacks on the internet. Regardless, that's my thought for the day. I don't know how this video is going to turn out. You let me know, please don't hate me. I just, I just want to win. I just want to win. Maybe it's Jasmine. Perhaps it's James.

Regardless, whoever wins a primary, we have to put as much time and energy as we can to ensure that that person makes it over the finish line but it could be depending upon who we choose that finish line we could not ever be able to reach to it because we start too far back thanks for watching if like the video please sit like if you're not subscribed please consider subscribing i'll see you soon bye